


cold slipping through every crack

by straightforwardly



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Huddling For Warmth, M/M, Pre-750, trapped together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-12-04 21:50:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11564037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/straightforwardly/pseuds/straightforwardly
Summary: A building collapses on Emil and Lalli as they’re exploring.The stone piled heavy above them. Cold air, a little light, and snow sneaked through gaps the size of his fist and smaller.





	cold slipping through every crack

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically just me indulging in my favorite tropes. And by “indulging”, I mean “90% setup, 10% pay-off”.

The stone piled heavy above them. Cold air, a little light, and snow sneaked through gaps the size of his fist and smaller. The air came as a relief— Emil’s cleanser training had come with too many horror stories about the various ways one could die on the job, and suffocating had always sounded like one of the worst options. But that turned out to be the only piece of real help drifting through those cracks between the stones. The light did little to illuminate the small space they’d fallen into; though Lalli was half a meter away, all Emil could see of him was a shadowed outline and a faint glow from where the light struck his hair. 

The snow was worse. Only a little came in at a time, but that little bit grew as time went on, layering down on the ground around them. Worse, there really wasn’t any space to move, not if he didn’t want to risk the whole mountain of stone to collapse on top of him. Earlier, he’d tried seeing if he could shift enough of the stone away to make an opening they could squeeze through, but then the whole pile above them had groaned dangerously and Lalli had hissed at him, so he’d quickly stopped. But without movement, even their thick winter clothing could only do so much. Already, the small space felt colder than when they’d first fallen in, and Emil found himself understanding just why trolls avoided the crappy buildings like they did. 

If he hadn’t been worried about freezing, the cold would have almost come as a relief. His body felt like it’d become nothing more than one big bruise, and the chill took some of the immediate sting away. When they got out of there, he definitely was going to need bandages everywhere. _Everywhere_. 

That was, of course, assuming they were going to get out of there alive, but Emil had decided to be optimistic. Sigrun would find them. It was true that they’d gone pretty far from where they’d split up, but she’d notice it when they didn’t come back and come looking for them. Maybe she’d have even heard it when the building had collapsed and come sooner; it wasn’t like the explosive had been particularly quiet. 

It hadn’t even been _his_ explosive, unfairly enough: just something that had been stored, improperly, in the building itself, waiting for the right spark. It’d been so sudden. The floor crumbling under their feet, the rush of air passing by as they fell— and the musical chant of Lalli’s voice, the glow that he could have sworn had, just for a split-second, surrounded them.

It really was rather lucky that neither of them had been crushed in the initial collapse. Fortunate too, that they hadn’t been separated. Lalli hadn’t said much of anything since they’d fallen, but it was— comforting, to know that he was there. To turn his head and see the faint outline of Lalli’s body, and know for certain he was alright. 

Still…

“Hurry up, Sigrun,” he muttered. 

No response came. 

Emil exhaled, and glanced towards Lalli. “How are you holding up?” he asked conversationally, not really expecting an answer. “Better than me, I bet. You’re used to this, right?” 

They didn’t even have electricity in Finland, or not much; cold like this was probably as familiar to Lalli as having a light in his bedroom and a telephone downstairs had been for Emil. He probably didn’t even blink at the thought of staying here for hours. Emil smiled a little, picturing how Lalli would have scoffed at him if he’d understood what he’d said— and then he saw it. 

A marked shiver, racing all the way down the length of Lalli’s body. 

Without thinking, he jerked forward, pulling his glove off and pressing his bare hand against Lalli’s cheek. Lalli flinched back with a sharp, “Mrr!” of protest, but not before Emil had felt his skin, ice-cold to the touch. 

“You’re freezing!” 

He was such an _idiot_. Suddenly he pictured Lalli as he looked in full-light: lithe and lean and all sharp-edges, only the barest layer between bone and air. Of _course_ Lalli was freezing. And here he was, sitting there thinking stupid thoughts and doing nothing, _nothing_ —

Emil tugged down the zipper on his coat, shivering a little as cold air struck the inner layers of his clothing. “Here, take this, you need it more than I do—”

But he’d only started to shrug it off his shoulders when Lalli’s hand came shooting out of the shadows, stopping him.

Emil turned. Lalli’s eyes gleamed from the shadows; once he saw for certain that Emil was looking, he gave a deliberate shake of his head. 

“But—”

Lalli shook his head again, faster this time, as though the movement would cut off the root of Emil’s concern.

“You can’t think I'm going to agree to do nothing,” said Emil stubbornly. 

Even as he said it, though, he knew that continuing to try to give Lalli his coat would be pointless. What he could see of the look on Lalli’s face made that clear. Even if he managed to take it off before Lalli could stop him, Lalli would just refuse to take it and the coat would just end up laying on the ground while they both froze. 

But there had to be _something_ he could do…

“Oh!”

His cheeks went red at the thought, but really, it _would_ be the best solution to their problem… He started pulling off his coat again, and again, Lalli tried to stop him. But this time he pulled back from Lalli’s grasp, holding his own hands up before him. 

“Just wait, okay?” he said in his most reassuring voice. “I’m going to try something different this time.”

Something of his intentions must have come through, because Lalli faltered, then pulled his hand back to his chest. He tilted his head, giving Emil a wary, searching look. Emil smiled back at him, trying to look confident. He knew Lalli’s vision was better than his in the dark; he hoped it wasn’t good enough to see his burning cheeks. 

After a bit of fumbling, Emil got his arms out from the sleeves and settled the coat over his shoulders like a blanket. Then, taking one side by the hem, he stretched it towards Lalli in invitation. 

“See? We can share. It’ll be warmer for both of us that way.”

Lalli looked at him for a long moment. It was cold, holding his coat open like that, and his hand trembled a little under the weight of Lalli’s gaze, but Emil didn’t move. He held still, waiting for Lalli to decide. 

Finally, slowly, Lalli began to inch towards him, until his body was pressed against Emil’s side. He let Emil wrap his arm around him; his shoulder dug into Emil’s side, sharp even through the layers of his clothing. This close, Emil could smell the fresh clean soap-smell of his skin, feel a few wild strands of Lalli’s hair brushing against his cheek. His heart thudded against his chest, and for a moment, he panicked, convinced that Lalli would hear it and pull away in disgust— but he didn’t. Instead, Lalli relaxed into him further, making a soft, contented sound, and tucked his cold nose behind Emil’s ear. 

Together they sat there, silent save for the sound of their breath, slowly growing warmer, slowly growing closer, until the ringing call of Sigrun’s voice finally came drifting down through the stone.


End file.
